On the version of Hot off the Wire posted March 15 at 7:15 a.m. CT:

WINCHESTER, Ind. (AP) — Police in Ohio confirmed two deaths resulting from a fierce storm system that unleashed suspected twisters and damaged homes and businesses in parts of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Chief Deputy Joe Kopus of the Logan County Sheriff’s Office in Ohio has confirmed the fatalities and says there likely will be more fatalities discovered following the Thursday storm, noting there was heavy damage in area communities. The Indiana State Police say there are “many significant injuries” after a tornado tore through the community of Winchester and say they are investigating reports of deaths. At a Thursday night news conference the state police said there were “no known fatalities” at the time. Forecasters plan to survey the affected areas Friday to confirm the tornado.

LONDON (AP) — System failures at McDonald’s have been reported worldwide, shuttering some restaurants for hours and leading to social media complaints. The fast food chain called the problems Friday a “technology outage” that is being fixed and apologized for the inconvenience. The Chicago-based burger giant said the problems aren't related to a cybersecurity issue. McDonald’s in Japan posted on X, formerly Twitter, that “operations are temporarily out at many of our stores nationwide.” The website Downdetector also reported a spike in problems with the McDonald’s app in the last few hours. Some McDonald’s restaurants are working normally again, with people ordering and getting their food at locations in Bangkok, Milan and London.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza is accusing Israeli forces of launching an attack near an aid distribution point in war-wracked northern Gaza, killing 20 people and wounding 155 others. The Israeli military said on Friday that Palestinian gunmen were the ones to open fire and that none of its forces had fired toward the waiting crowd or the convoy in the violence the previous night. Meanwhile, a ship loaded with some 200 tons of aid is nearing the enclave where hundreds of thousands have been driven to the brink of starvation. The aid ship left Cyprus earlier this week towing a barge laden with food. It could be seen off Gaza’s coast on Friday morning.

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge has rejected a bid by Donald Trump to throw out out his classified documents criminal case, and appeared skeptical during hours of arguments of a separate effort to scuttle the prosecution ahead of trial. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon issued a two-page order Thursday saying that though the Trump team had raised “various arguments warranting serious consideration,” a dismissal of charges was not merited. Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, is presiding over one of the four criminal cases against the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee. This case involves records, some highly classified, he took with him from the White House.

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A dozen countries across Africa have suffered a major internet outage as multiple undersea telecommunication cables reported failures. Network disruptions caused by cable damage have occurred in Africa in recent years, but “today’s disruption points to something larger (and) this is amongst the most severe,” said Isik Mater, director of research at NetBlocks, a group that documents internet disruptions around the world. Internet firm Cloudflare reported a pattern in the timing of the disruptions that heavily impacted at least 10 countries in West Africa, including Ivory Coast, Liberia, Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso. The cause of the failure was not immediately clear.

In other headlines:

—The Associated Press

About this program

Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.

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